


Little Sister

by Lastavica



Category: 24 (TV)
Genre: Anxiety, Brother-Sister Relationships, But season 7 never happened!, Canon Compliant, Cemetery, Family, Fear, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Isolation, Jack Feels, Little Sisters, Loneliness, Los Angeles, Michelle's pregnancy was canon, Past Torture, Post-Season/Series 05, Post-Season/Series 06, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sad Jack, Season/Series 06, Solidarity, Tony was my favorite character!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 04:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8272180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lastavica/pseuds/Lastavica
Summary: Jack meets somebody he didn't expect.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place immediately following Jack's obligatory and cruelly unnecessary debrief after Day 6. (It's a little between seasons extra and it's on youtube. Just search 24 debrief, Jack Bauer or season 6 debrief.)
> 
> Reminder:  
> Jack is forced out of hiding at the beginning of day 5, having faked his own death at the end of day 4 with Tony and Michelle's help. Michelle dies at the beginning of day 5 and Tony dies later on. At the end of 5, Jack gets kidnapped and taken prisoner to China for the same reason he'd even faked his own death in the first place. Then he's back for day 6... whatever.

Jack stood, staring in disbelief at the grave stone, not quite sure how he'd even gotten there. After that so called debrief, he walked for a few hours just trying to blow off steam, trying to forget what they'd made him remember. He was so angry and still so alone, but he couldn't go back to that dark, empty apartment. With no friends and his daughter finished with him, there'd only been one place left to go; Tony and Michelle's resting place. This was his first visit there. A dull cloud of agony hung over him as he read the engraved letters over and over again.

"Excuse me." someone said behind him.

Jack jumped, startled by the interruption. He turned to find the owner of the voice.

"Sorry if I surprised you." the dark haired woman said.

His body tensed. It was something about human interaction. It had been happening since he finally got away from the madness, finally accepted that he wasn't going back to the shackles and the torture Cheng had inflicted on him.

"Did you know my brother?" she asked. 

His muscles began to ease as her simple question penetrated his brain. Immediately he met her eyes without fear. She looked like Tony, but a few years younger. 

"I-" he stifled the hesitation. "I'm Jack." He put out his hand.

She looked at him, her neutral expression vanishing quickly. Her face filled with such a kind expression that, for the first time in years, Jack felt safe. She didn't shake his hand, but instead reached out to hug him. He was surprised and, while his body wanted to flee the physical contact, his heart contracted a little. He wasn't alone.

She knew who Jack was.

They sat down together, side by side, on a bench maybe twenty yards off from the grave of her brother and sister-in-law.

She dispensed with friendly questions, knowing full well that this man knew her pain and had volumes of his own. They simply sat there, not needing to speak.

After some time though, Jack found his voice and quietly asked "Did he tell you I was alive?"

She nodded.

He knew he could trust her if Tony had trusted her that much.

"Did anyone tell you what happened that day? ...When they died?" He asked, feeling a familial obligation to this woman he'd only just met.

She looked at him. "They told me it was a cover, that Tony was supposed to have died with her."

Jack looked down as a wave of memory hit him. He would tell her the whole story, but he could not do it now. Without any acknowledgement they both knew this wouldn't be their last meeting. 

Silence settled over them, comfortable and unhurried.

After another moment or two had passed, Jack looked toward the grave and spoke in a quiet voice as if out of reverence, "What is your name?"

"Sophia."

"You look like your brother." He said and offered her a small smile.

She smiled too.

Then he asked her about what he'd read on the headstone, what he didn't want to be true.

"Sophia?"

She looked at him.

"Michelle was pregnant?"

"Yes, Jack. It was a little boy."

Then the words carved in the stone were true. -Henry Antonio Ameida (unborn)- right beneath both of his parents' names.

Without warning Jack's face fell into his hands. His shouldered shook helplessly as he silently wept.

He cried for his lost friends, for their child, and for himself that he didn't also die with Teri and their baby.

When he finally pulled himself together again, Sophia pulled him into another hug. He didn't resist.

"Where have you been since they died?" Sophia asked when the separated again.

Jack didn't want to answer. That place, those 20 months, he never wanted to think of it again. But he wanted Sophia to know him. For the first time in years he wanted a new connection, this connection. So he said it.

"I was-... because of what I did, the reason we staged my death, I was abducted by the Chinese... Same day they died."

Impulsively, he showed her his hand, the surface of a sea of wounds. "They tortured me for 20 months." He said without looking at her.

Deep sadness filled Sophia's expression.

"When did you return?"

"A month ago." He said and then closed his eyes. Those circumstances were almost as bad to recall. 

She looked down, choosing her words.

"Jack, can I see you again? I'd like to be your friend if you'd like to be mine."

He met her eyes, almost surprised to be wanted. He had just cried in front of her and in a few words told her he had nothing but baggage. And, he didn't say it but he still believed he was the reason Tony, Michelle and their baby were dead. He hadn't expected an invitation into her life.

"Yes." he nearly whispered. "I would."

Sophia smiled at him. "I'd like that." Opening her bag she took out a loose receipt and a pencil. On the back of it she wrote her phone number and address. Handing it to him, she said "Come visit me. We'll talk more."  
With that, she got up and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Walking back over to the headstone she made the sign of the cross, kissed her hand and placed it on each of the engraved names. Then she left.

Jack sat there turning the receipt in his fingers. Visit her? For the last month he had wandered like a wraith and lived like a fugitive; afraid, alone, and empty. He was more than a mess, on the brink of disappearing to anywhere but LA. He looked over to where Tony lay in the ground with his family. Jack hadn't been the only one left behind. Tony had a little sister who wanted to be his friend. Although, he believed she would eventually see what he was and let him go, he owed it to Tony to respect her wishes. 

Eventually Jack go up to leave. He looked at the grave one more time.  
"You never mentioned you had a sister." He said with the tiniest hint of a smile. Then he walked away.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this up on ff.net for a few years. Decided to edit it and repost here. Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
